Michaela Seidl – Drawings, paintings and more

“Michaela Seidl – Drawings, paintings and more” – www.seidlart.com – is the website of my good friend, the incredibly artistic Michaela Seidl from Salzburg/Austria. No matter which tool she uses, a pencil, a pen or a brush and no matter on what surface she draws and paints, paper, linen

or silk, the results are always breathtaking. Michaela creates the most beautiful pieces of ART.

She could put color on her finger and draw with it on a concrete wall, the outcome would be

nothing less than fantastic. Even though she is a very busy working woman and a mother of a beautiful son, she masters to pursue her hobby. Due to the fact that Michaela is a night owl most of her incredible ART is created in the hours past midnight. And nevertheless her time is so limited her selection of great ART is growing by the day. Check out seidlart.com and see for yourself.

​I am for sure not an art critic but I have a good feeling for what is cool. Leaving my friendship with Michaela aside, I would include her to the group of my most talented artist friends. Her pencil portraits are amazingly detailed, her Venetian masks, her flowers and still life drawings are out of this world. Not to mention her calligraphy or her latest works, photorealistic pencil drawings. Once you’ve seen one piece, you want to see them all. Wandering through her galleries can be considered as one of the greatest pleasures for art lovers. Giving the fact that Michaela can’t spend more time for her drawings, paintings and other art projects some few hours around midnight every other day only makes each single one of her pieces very special and exclusive. Michaela Seidl has her own website www.seidlart.com where she showcases some of her beautiful work. Its only right, that a much broader group of art lovers get to enjoy her great artistry. One of many reasons for me to dedicate this space to her and her art.

My photos stand model for her incredible art

I am proud to say that once in a while Michaela Seidl uses some of my photography as an inspiration for her drawings and paintings. My photos from the “Carnival in Venice” for example "stood model" for her art work, and so did some of my Liguria shots from Cinque Terre or from Austria's capital, Vienna. Last but not least some impressions from the famous “Route 66” in the US were also "reproduced" by her. Michaela Seidl's “Venetian Masks” I highly recommend to look at and also the pencil drawings of the Route 66 “Oldtimers”.

From excitement to frustration – From struggle to satisfaction and joy

I would like to give my visitors a tiny taste of how the artist Michaela Seidl “ticks”. A recent comment from her on my Facebook page seems to be the right example for this. I had shared an image of “The Unbounded Spirit” on my FB page, with the following content: “When you buy something from an artist you’re buying more than an object. You’re buying hundreds of hours of errors and experimentation. You’re buying years of frustration and moments of pure joy. You’re not buying just one thing, you are buying a piece of heart, a piece of a soul… a small piece of someone else’s life.” Michaela Seidl answered with the following comment: “Right, it´s far more than the final product. From the first sparkle of an idea to the complete concept in your head. The hope that it might look as cool on paper as it looks in your mind’s eye. The desire that the planned design may flow through your body, arms and hand to materialize on paper. The excitement when you feel like creating something new, and the frustration when it doesn’t turn out according to plan. The joy and relief when a part of it turns out right, the distress when you are stuck in the middle of the making. The indecision to draw the next line because it might ruin everything. The overcoming of doubt when you’re able to continue. Finally the satisfaction when the struggle is through even though the inevitable desire to tweak here and there and everywhere stays for a while. The process is key.”

I think that says so much more about her as an artist as I could possibly come up with. Please take a look at her work on her site. Click the link here and check out Michaela Seidl’s great art work.

Pontebba/Italy (2019) – ​Very talented and creative sculptors from not only Italy but also Belarus, the Ukraine, Mongolia, Czech Republic, Germany and Wales/Great Britain showed once again in Pontebba in Friuli-Venezia Giulia during this year's 4th International Snow Sculpture Festival their incredible skills. As if it was not freezing cold enough already, for three days in a row the international artists had to work huge iced snow blocks into amazing pieces of art in open air. Snow Art

Trieste/Italy (2018) – ​Every year on the second Sunday in October the city of Trieste mutates to the Mecca of sailing. This year an estimated 300.000 people populated the city to attend the so called Barcolana in the Golf of Trieste, a true celebration of the sea and the sport of sailing with the main event, the largest sailboat regatta in the world. While the famous boat race is held on Sunday, the Barcolana celebration is spread out over the whole weekend. This year's Barcolana was the 50th

Rovinj/Croatia (2018) – If you look for the romantic charm only an island can produce, the enchantment of a fishermen town and an Italian look and feel, without actually being in Italy, the Istrian city of Rovinj might be just what you are looking for. Even though the Croatian jewel, located on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula, is by God no secret to the tourism industry, the little fishing port still presents itself as a sleeping beauty, totally ignoring and covering the fact, that it

Rome/Italy (2018) – Walking through Rome is like walking through a gigantic open air museum. I'm quite certain that I share this assessment with most of the tourists visiting the Italian capital. Even Romans themselves say, for example the late Alberto Sordi, beloved Italian actor and film director: "Rome is not like any city, it's a majestic museum, a living room to tiptoe through". The Italian capital is immensely loaded with fascinating excavation sites, literally on every corner is one,

Palmanova, Friuli/Italy (2018) – While the Italian sun merciless heated up the grounds, 45 teams of five different countries showed with their horses and carriages in Friuli's "starred city", Palmanova, what humans and animals can accomplish together if only they understand each other well. The "International Competition of Attacks", organized by the local ANAC COLOC FRIULI lasted three days and demanded not only incredible skills of the carriage drivers and their horses but also all their

Montegabbione, Umbria/Italy (2018) – Hidden in the middle of nowhere land, nestled in an Umbrian forest lie two very special and magical places right next to each other, called "La Scarzuola" – "The Sacred City" and "The Ideal City". Visitors enter the historic former Franciscan monastery and walk right into a dream land, the very surreal world of Tomaso Buzzi (1900 - 1981). The famous Milanese avant-garde architect, eminent and influential in the 1920s and 1930s in Italy, acquired the monastery

Terni, Umbria/Italy (2018) – Generally I do believe that nature by itself provides incredibly raw beauty, but once in a while I have to admit that mankind can definitely contribute to natures efforts in making the world a beautiful place. I'm not talking about putting some flower pots in front of our homes or planting bushes and trees here and there. In the Italian region Umbria you'll find an example I'm talking about: the Cascata delle Marmore, a man-made waterfall, created by the ancient

Sansepolcro/Italy (2018) – Just as I was about to walk through an ancient arch of the fortified city walls into the historic old town of Sansepolcro in the southeast of Tuscany, bordering Umbria and Marche, the sound of loud howling engines suddenly grabbed my attention. I knew this sound, this had to be a Ferrari. Indeed there it was, one of Enzo Ferrari's treasures from Maranello, driving down the alley in all its beauty, red, shiny and roaring. And there was another one coming and another

Assisi, Umbria/Italy (2018) – When lots of men in long brown robes walk in the heat of the day next to you, looking like monks but acting like tourists, strolling around on busy squares and walking the same alleys as you do with the same goal in mind to reach a very beautiful sight, then you know, you're close to a sacred destination. And if you see Saint Francis, the founder of the Franciscan orders of the Friars Minor in 1208 and co-patron saint of Italy, looking at you from souvenir stands,

Assisi, Umbria/Italy (2018) – Umbria/Italy (2018) – When we talk about Italy's beautiful landscape, we always refer immediately to Tuscany. And rightfully so I think because there is a reason why most of us consider it a piece of heaven. Much less attention gets Tuscany's neighbor, Umbria, which really is incomprehensible, especially once you've seen it. It is not so much different from Tuscany, how could it be anyway, nature, people and style usually don't change much within a close by

Lake Como – Cernobbio, Tremezzo, Bellagio (2018) – Italy definitely offers a lot of places where one can feel utterly heavenly. I'm not spilling any secrets when I tell you that one of these divine spots can be found in Northern Italy's Lombardy region. North of Milan, where Italy meets the Alps, close to the Swiss border, there it lays, the breathtaking jewel Lake Como. The 30 miles (50 Kilometer) long "Y" shaped lake with its gorgeous villages at its shoreline is considered an Italian gem...

Fagagna/Friuli, Italy (2017) – Every first Sunday in September, since 1861, locals and many visitors from near and far gather around the beautiful market square of Fagagna in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, near the northern Italian city Udine, to witness a very traditional and truly unique spectacle: the "Corse dai mus", the race of the donkeys. Yeah I know, it sounds funny at first but it really isn't. Sure, the thought of donkeys racing around a track puts a smile in every sour face, but don't be

Diavolezza/Switzerland (2017) – Yes, it gets hot in summer, we get that. But that hot?
Somebody has to talk to the responsible otherwise we all will soon run for the mountains where temperatures still can be endured. There is literally nothing cooler than to be at a glacier by the way on a hot August summer day. Trust me, I've checked it out this year, while on a journey through the Engadine valley with the "Trainino Rosso" in Switzerland. If there is a desire in you to see a glacier from the

Tirano/Italy, St. Moritz/Switzerland (2017) – Since August of this year I have something in common with one of the greatest generals and military strategists in history, Hannibal, we both crossed the Alps. Of course each one of us did it with style, Hannibal on a war elephant and I on the coolest train in the Alps, the Bernina Express. The little red train, how the Bernina Express is also called, is part of the Rhaetian Railway (RhB) and links the famous St. Moritz in Switzerland with the town

Livigno/Italy (2017) – To trade sandy beaches for grassland in high altitude for a little summer vacation seems wrong already at the first thought. Especially in Italy, where the beaches and the sea are a synonym for "La dolce vita". It's tough to turn your back on something you know would be great and instead try something you can't even predict the outcome because you know literally nothing about it. Well, I did the unthinkable anyway in this year's so very hot August and drove up north,

Passariano/Codroipo, Villa Manin/Italy (2017) – ​The "Villa Manin" in Passariano/Codroipo has already something noble about it. But add some very strong and elegant horses pulling vintage carriages to the former property of one of the last doges of Venice and let people in traditional and historic clothing guide them through an obstacle course right on the Manin's former front lawn and you have the perfect picture of this year's "5th International Competition of Tradition Attacks" in Friuli.

Positano, Amalfi Coast/Italy (2017) – "Positano bites deep", wrote the American author John Steinbeck in his essay for the "Harpers Bazaar" in 1953 and introduced with that the true pearl of the Italian Amalfi coast to the world. "It is a dream place that isn’t quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone", wrote the winner of "Pulitzer Prize" and "Nobel Prize" and opened with that the floodgate for Positano's tourism. Ever since the "vertical village" ranks as

Naples/Italy (2017) – "Rome is stately and impressive; Florence is all beauty and enchantment; Genoa is picturesque; Venice is a dream city; but Naples is simply fascinating", wrote Emily Lilian Whithing (1847-1942), an American journalist, poet and story teller in her book "Italy: The Magic Land". Naples couldn't receive a greater and more fitting compliment. Even though the city has to fight so many misconceptions – dirty, dangerous, unfriendly – once given the chance to convince visitors from

Capri/Italy (2017) – It is considered a sign of great popularity when a song is written about a place and performed worldwide for decades. The "Isle of Capri" is such a song. Since it was written in 1934, many famous singer carried the Italian island's name out into the world and multiple times and in many languages around the globe. But Capri's fame doesn't come from this song, the great island in the bay of Naples, belonging to Italians region Campania, has a long history as a resort, starting

Abbey Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Tuscany/Italy (2017) – Where the green rolling hills of the Tuscan landscape all of the sudden end and the rather harsh looking land of the Crete Senesi takes over, there you'll find Tuscany's most-visited abbey, the Abbazia di Monte Oliveto Maggiore. With that you meet the brotherhood of the Monaci Benedettini di Santa Maria di Monte Oliveto and my new found friend Brother Joseph. The monastery is renowned for its great Renaissance frescoes in the "Chiostro Grande"

Lake Como – Cernobbio, Tremezzo, Bellagio (2018) – Italy definitely offers a lot of places where one can feel utterly heavenly. I'm not spilling any secrets when I tell you that one of these divine spots can be found in Northern Italy's Lombardy region. North of Milan, where Italy meets the Alps, close to the Swiss border, there it lays, the breathtaking jewel Lake Como. The 30 miles (50 Kilometer) long "Y" shaped lake with its gorgeous villages at its shoreline is considered an Italian gem...

Val d'Orcia, Tuscany/Italy (2017) – I have seen big and small, vibrant and busy cities, secluded but cozy and beautiful places, I have seen gorgeous locations in the mountains, at the sea, on islands and even in the desert. And a while ago I had already come to the following conclusion: no matter where you are, something will excite you or it won't fulfill your expectations, something you see or experience will leave you with a good or a bad feeling. It's just like that, pretty simple